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38 



1 ^UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.^ 



ANOTHER SUMMER 



THE 



YELLOWSTONE PARK 



AND 



ALASKA 



BY 

CHARLES J. GILLIS 



(print ed for 
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61928 

Copyright, 1893, by 
CHARLES J. GILLIS. 



Press of J. J. Little & Co. 
Astor Place, New York 



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The more I think of it, the more I find this conclusion 
impressed upon me, that the greatest thing a human soul 
ever does in this world is to see something and tell what 
it saw in a plain way. — Ruskin. 




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PREFACE. 

In the spring of 1892, a party was made 
up for a trip to Alaska. The different 
members thereof were to cross the conti- 
nent by such routes as they pleased, and 
meet at Portland, Oregon, on the second of 
July. This plan was followed, and all the 
party boarded the steamer Queen at Ta- 
coma, prepared for the journey of a thou- 
sand miles up the coast of Alaska. 

Some account of this, and also of an ex- 
cursion to the Yellowstone Park, made on 
the way westward, is given in the follow- 
ing pages. 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. — The Start for Alaska, . . .11 

II. — On the Way to the Yellowstone, 13 

III. — Yellowstone Park, . . . .16 

IV. — The Geysers and Paint Pot, . 18 
V.— The Upper Geyser Basin, . . 22 
VI. — The Grand Canyon, and the Falls 

of the Yellowstone, . .25 
VII. — Down the Columbia River to Port- 
land, . . . . . .29 

VIII.— Tacoma and Seattle, . . .34 
IX. — On Board the " Queen " from Ta- 
coma to Victoria, . . yj 
X. — Alaska, . . . . . .41 

XL— The Muir Glacier, . . . .43 

XII.— Sitka, 46 

XIII.— An Accident to the " Queen," . 49 
XIV.— Icy Bay, Treadwell, and Juneau, 53 
XV.— The Return Voyage, and Some 

Stories told on the Way, . 56 
XVI.— On the Canadian Pacific, . . 68 

XVII. — Banff Springs, 72 

XVIII.— Conclusion, 74 



THE YELLOWSTONE PARK 
AND ALASKA. 




CHAPTER I. 

THE START FOR ALASKA. 

*UR long trip to Alaska and 
return, nine thousand miles 
in all, commenced on June 
17, 1892, at the Grand Cen- 
tral Station, New York. 
Arriving at Chicago the 
next afternoon, we obtained a good view of 
the great exposition buildings from our car 
windows as we passed along the lake front. 
Shortly afterward we were dumped down 
at the wretched sheds of the Michigan Cen- 
tral Railroad. It rained very heavily, and 
ourselves and hand baggage were somewhat 
wet passing a short distance to a carriage. 
We soon crossed the Chicago River to the 
Northwestern Depot, boarded the train, 
which left at 11 P.M., and arrived at the 
beautiful modern city of St. Paul at 1 p.m. 



12 Yellowstone Park and Alaska. 

the next day. The Hotel Ryan was found 
to be very comfortable, and everything in 
and around the city is bright and cheerful. 
Great business activity, and immense and 
costly buildings are especially noticeable. 

Running along the streets are great num- 
bers of spacious and elegant cars drawn by 
cables. We hailed a passing one, got in, 
and went slowly and carefully through the 
crowded streets, up and down hills, with 
great speed and ease, into the country for 
some miles, passing many elegant private 
residences, as costly and fine as any to be 
seen in any city in the world — notably one 
built and occupied by Mr. Hill, president 
of the Great Northern Railroad, now about 
completed to the Pacific Ocean, whose 
name you hear mentioned often as one of 
the great railroad magnates of the West. 
The streets are clean, the sidewalks wide, 
the front yards of the houses crowded with 
beautiful plants and flowers, and in all re- 
spects we concluded that St. Paul is a most 
delightful city. 



CHAPTER II. 




ON THE WAY TO THE 
YELLOWSTONE. 

Livingston, Montana, June 22, 1892. 

E left the city of St. Paul 
at 4.25 P.M. on the 20th, 
by the Northern Pacific 
Railroad, and arrived 
here at 8 A.M. this morn- 
ing. A section on the 
sleeping-car had been previously engaged, 
and we found it and the dining-room car 
attached to the train all that could be 
desired, so that we thoroughly enjoyed the 
entire trip. Passing through the Bad Lands 
was a wonderful experience. Great moun- 
tains of clay or stone, in all sorts of gro- 
tesque shapes and of many colors, constantly 
attracted our attention until we reached the 
Yellowstone River, which was higher than 
it had been for many years. Here things 
began to look serious, as frequently the 
dirty and rushing flood came near to the 



14 Yellowstone Park and Alaska. 

track, and the rise of a foot or so would 
have caused a wash-out, and have stopped 
our progress ; but for many miles before 
we reached this station, the engineer moved 
the train of ten cars very carefully, and we 
were only two hours behind time. There 
has been a bridge burned beyond this place, 
and some bad wash-outs are reported by 
passengers coming East, who say that they 
had to travel around six miles on foot, 
through a country infested with rattle- 
snakes, leaving their baggage behind; but 
we expect that all will be clear on Mon- 
day, when we shall have been through the 
park, and will be ready to go on from here 
West. 

There was the usual crowd of " all sorts 
and conditions " of men on the train — 
young ranchmen, bright eyed, intelligent, 
and alert, one of them being an English 
lord, but I did not know this until he left 
the car at a way station. All had tales to 
tell of life in these parts, one of which was 
that the stage running from one of the 
stations at which we stopped was " held 
up " three times last week, and the passen- 
gers robbed. This town is a new one, with 
a lot of small wooden houses and stores, 



On the Way to the Yellowstone. 15 

but as the hotels did not look very attrac- 
tive, we took our breakfast on the dining- 
car attached to a train about to start for 
Cinnabar, on a branch road, and an excel- 
lent meal we had. 




CHAPTER III. 



YELLOWSTONE PARK. 




Mammoth Springs Hotel, 
Yellowstone National Park, June 23, 1892 . 

P 

EAVING Livingston at 9 

A.M., we travelled by rail 
forty-two miles to Cinna- 
bar, the entrance to the 
National Park. We passed 
along the valley of the 
Yellowstone River, now a much swollen, tur- 
bulent, and rushing stream, hemmed in by 
mountains reaching their lofty heads thou- 
sands of feet high. In one place there had 
been a land-slide some hundreds of feet 
long, which had carried down all the earth 
and trees into the valley, leaving the rock 
bare, and presenting a very rugged appear- 
ance. There were numerous farms and 
ranches on the route, with cattle and culti- 
vated fields. The road bed was in good 
order, the cars excellent, and the trip ex- 
ceedingly interesting and enjoyable. At 



Yellowstone Park. ij 

Cinnabar, we took a stage for eight miles 
to this hotel. The road is a very good one, 
passing over rushing streams and along the 
bases of great mountains, amidst magni- 
ficent scenery. Beautiful flowers line the 
way and are in the fields, while the moun- 
tains are partly covered with snow. We 
hear that the road to the lake is blocked 
with snow, and impassable. This hotel is 
an excellent one, the food, attendance, and 
rooms are good, and for a day we are rest- 
ing preparatory to commencing the tour of 
the park. Here are located the barracks 
for the United States soldiers in charge of 
the reservation, these being now two hun- 
dred mounted men, who act as police, and 
constantly patrol the roads, watching for 
poachers, and generally keeping everything 
in order. From the front of the hotel we 
look upon the hot springs, which have been 
throwing out hot water and steam, no doubt 
for ages, and have formed a large terraced 
hill of soda or lime-like material, the sur- 
plus water finding its way, partly through 
subterranean passages, to the river. 



CHAPTER IV. 




THE GEYSERS AND PAINT POT. 

Fountain Hotel, 
Yellowstone Park, June 23, 1892. 

HIS morning at eight 
o'clock we left the Mam- 
moth Spring, in a strongly 
built and comfortable 
wagon drawn by four 
horses, with eight passen- 
gers and a careful driver, and soon com- 
menced to see the wonders of this remark- 
able park. The road ran near three lakes, 
each measuring a hundred acres or more — 
one green in color, one blue, and one yel- 
low — the like of which cannot, I think, be 
seen anywhere else on earth. On exami- 
nation, I found that the water was clear, 
and that the pronounced and brilliant colors 
came from chemical deposits on the bottom 
of the lakes. We did not linger long to 
look at these remarkable phenomena, but 
drove on, and were soon passing over a 



The Geysers and Paint Pot. 19 

road made of natural glass, by the side of 
a great mountain of the same material. I 
picked up several pieces of this glass, and 
found that it was green in color, and looked 
like any other glass, while alongside the 
road and up the mountain we saw large 
masses of the same material. The only 
conclusion we could arrive at was, that in 
some prehistoric time the materials of 
which glass is composed must have been 
in juxtaposition, and were fused into their 
present form by a volcanic eruption. It is 
safe to say that nowhere else on earth is 
to be found a roadway made of glass. 

We reached this hotel at 6 P.M., and saw 
near by the first of the geysers, spouting 
hot water fifty feet high. We made our 
way over a thin crust to see this geyser, 
so thin that it seemed as if we might break 
through and disappear forever, reminding 
me of a former experience, when walking 
along the edge of a volcano in Japan, a 
place was pointed out where two guides 
who had wandered from the path, broke 
through the crust and were lost. We passed 
on to examine what I consider the most 
extraordinary natural phenomenon to be 
seen on the face of the earth. It is called 



20 Yellowstone Park and Alaska. 

the Paint Pot, and is a depression of about 
thirty by forty feet, with walls of hardened 
clay three or four feet high. In this so- 
called pot are half a dozen or more cones, 
much like inverted flower pots, about six 
inches in diameter at the top, and two or 
three feet high. From the centres of these 
there are constantly flowing streams of hot 
clay, each stream of a different color, vary- 
ing from pure white to brown. In other 
parts of the big pot the soft clay was com- 
ing slowly up from centres and overflowing, 
forming figures like flowers, very beautiful 
to look at. The soldier who escorted us 
was very polite, but would not permit us 
to carry away a bit of the clay, though 
there were tens of thousands of tons lying 
about. We could see, near by and at a 
distance, several other geysers, spouting 
water fifty or more feet high, and we learned 
from the guide books that there are no less 
than ten or twelve thousand boiling springs 
and geysers within the reservation, which 
is sixty-five miles long by fifty-three wide, 
containing about three thousand four hun- 
dred and seventy-five square miles. We 
were informed that after sunset a bear 
came regularly, back of the hotel, to regale 



The Geysers and Paint Pot. 21 

himself on the refuse thrown from the 
kitchen, and I went to see him ; but the 
mosquitoes were very thick, and proved 
such an intolerable nuisance that I was 
obliged to go away without getting a look 
at the beast. 




CHAPTER V. 



THE UPPER GEYSER BASIN. 




June 24, 1892. 

jFTER a good night's sleep, 
we left the hotel at half- 
past eight this morning 
for an excursion to the 
Upper Geyser Basin, forty 
miles distant. The roads 
were in bad order, very dusty, and the mos- 
quitoes thick. Geysers and boiling springs 
were to the right and left, everywhere. At 
one place we got out of the wagon, and 
crossed a bridge over a small stream to 
what is called the Devil's Half Acre. There 
were really a dozen or more acres, contain- 
ing great volumes of steam and hot water 
rushing up and around. Many little streams 
ran toward a big basin, some of them yel- 
low, some green, and some blue, but on 
examination I found that the water itself 
was clear. The mud or clay which formed 
the bed of the streams, or was being car- 



The Upper Geyser Basin. 23 

ried along in the current, was colored. We 
thought the Devil's Half Acre a dangerous 
as well as a disagreeable place, and, recross- 
ing the little stream, continued on our way, 
arriving at the hotel at the Upper Geyser 
Basin in four hours. We had just arrived 
when we were informed that the famous 
Old Faithful Geyser, which has spouted for 
many years every sixty-five minutes, would 
go off in a short time. It is situated a few 
rods from the hotel, and as we drew near, 
it commenced to spout up an immense 
column of water and steam one hundred 
and fifty feet or so in height. Then, in 
about five minutes, it subsided into a hole 
in the grpund. We could hear the roar of 
the steam and water underneath, the com- 
motion shaking the ground. 

Soon after this exhibition, another gey- 
ser, called the Bee Hive, situated near the 
hotel, spouted, and made a splendid display. 
I think we saw in this basin as many as 
twenty large spouting geysers, and hun- 
dreds of boiling springs, many of them of 
surprising beauty. One, which attracted 
my attention particularly, was a slowly 
boiling spring which threw up colored clay, 
and looked exactly like a large sponge. 



24 Yellozvstone Park and Alaska. 

This was about three feet long, two feet 
wide, and as many high. 

Driving along the road, we frequently 
saw signs put up by the Government : " Do 
not drive on here," and " Danger "; so one 
is impressed with the idea that some day 
the tremendous volcanic power underlying 
this entire valley may burst out and make 
one vast crater of lava, mud, water, and 
steam. 





CHAPTER VI. 

THE GRAND CANYON, AND THE 
FALLS OF THE YELLOWSTONE. 

Grand Canyon Hotel, June 26, 1892. 

E left the Upper Geyser 
Basin at half-past eight 
yesterday morning, 
stopped for lunch at 
Norris's at noon, and, 
branching off, arrived 
here at 3.30 P.M. The road was on the 
banks of or near the Gibbon River for many 
miles, and was very rough. Twice we 
forded the river, and once the passengers 
were obliged to leave the wagon and re- 
move a fallen tree from the way. At 
another place, a tree a foot in diameter 
had fallen across the road ; the party all 
got out, and the driver had to jump the 
wagon over the obstruction, at the risk of 
breaking the vehicle. The road from Norris's 
was in good repair, and from it we had a 
fine view of the great Yellowstone Falls, 



26 Yellowstone Park and Alaska. 

and then drove on to find comfortable ac- 
commodations at this hotel, the views from 
which are very magnificent. Mrs. Marble 
and I, accompanied by a guide, and Mr. and 
Mrs. Hunter, of Canada, took a walk toward 
the Grand Canyon, about half a mile off. 
Crossing some fields, we entered the pine 
woods. The w r hole park has been repeat- 
edly burnt over, and there is everywhere 
an immense number of prostrate pine-trees, 
some of which are very large, and appeared, 
when we saw them, to have been lying on 
the ground many years. In this vicinity, 
however, there is quite a forest of new 
growth, all about the same size, from six 
to ten inches in diameter, and ten to a 
dozen feet apart, making a very pretty 
park. Here we came suddenly upon a big 
black bear lying down ; he got up, took a 
look at us, and then in a leisurely way 
walked off. It was a fine specimen, weigh- 
ing, we judged, about two hundred and fifty 
pounds, with long, clean black hair. Mr. 
Hunter ran on toward the animal, but we 
called to him to come back, and the bear, 
turning his head, gave us another look, and 
disappeared in the forest. We walked 
along to the banks of the rushing and roar- 



The Falls of the Yellowstone. 27 

ing river, ascended a high cliff, and looked 
down upon the great falls and the tremen- 
dous canyon, the walls of which are several 
hundred feet high, colored bright green in 
some places, and in others red, yellow, or 
violet. 

The whole scene was magnificent, grand, 
and gloomy. In the middle of the river, 
near where we stood, was a column of rock 
some hundreds of feet high, apparently ten 
yards in diameter at the bottom, and just 
large enough at the top for an eagle's nest. 
One had been built there, and we saw the 
young eagles stretching their necks, and 
opening their mouths, as all kinds of young 
ones do when hungry. The parents were 
soaring about, and evidently keeping a 
watchful eye upon us and their progeny, 
but the little ones were safe, as nothing but 
a ball from a rifle could reach that nest. 
From this point we had another fine view 
of the Falls of the Yellowstone, both lower 
and upper. The upper fall has been meas- 
ured, and found to be one hundred and 
twelve feet high and eighty feet wide. 

The wild animals in the reservation are 
carefully protected by the custodians, no 
one being allowed to use a gun, and conse- 



28 Yellowstone Park and Alaska, 

quently they have become comparatively 
tame, and have increased in numbers. Pass- 
ing along the roads, we saw on one occa- 
sion two deer, and at other times an elk 
and an antelope. The superintendent, in 
his official report, says that there are in the 
park four hundred head of buffalo, a few 
moose, numerous elk, estimated at twenty 
thousand, and large numbers of bears, which 
latter are sometimes troublesome. A herd 
of twenty or thirty elk was seen near this 
hotel on the morning before we arrived. 




CHAPTER VII. 




DOWN THE COLUMBIA RIVER TO 
PORTLAND. 

Portland, Oregon, July i, 1892. 

fjFTER spending six days 
in the Yellowstone Park, 
which would have been 
far more comfortable if 
there had been less dust, 
fewer mosquitoes, and bet- 
ter roads, we again returned to Livingston, 
and took the train coming from the East at 
8.15 P.M. All the next day and night and 
the day following we were passing through 
mountain scenery of wonderful beauty and 
grandeur, until at 1 1 P.M. we were landed at 
Pasco Junction, there being a cross-country 
railroad from that point to the Union Pa- 
cific, on the banks of the Columbia, where 
we wanted to go. There was a large station 
at Pasco, but not a porter nor a carriage to 
be seen. Many drinking places were open, 
and I interviewed several of the patriots 



30 Yellowstone Park and Alaska. 

who were lounging about in their shirt 
sleeves — for the thermometer registered one 
hundred degrees- — and they pointed out the 
way to Cook's Hotel, about a quarter of a 
mile off. Finally a porter came to our 
assistance and escorted us to the hotel, 
which was about as poor a one as could 
well be — close, hot, and uncomfortable. 
The beds were as hot as if there was a fire 
under them, and we, of course, slept but 
little. In the morning, after looking at a 
bad breakfast, which did not tempt our 
appetites, we got into the caboose of a 
freight train, and a very rough trip of two 
hours brought us to Wallula Junction, where 
the thermometer stood at one hundred de- 
grees in the shade. Here we changed cars, 
and after two hours' more riding, reached 
the Union Pacific Railroad, where we once 
more enjoyed the luxury of seats in a Pull- 
man. There was no dining-room car attached 
to this train, but it stopped at a station for 
half an hour, and we were supplied with an 
excellent dinner. The polite and kind con- 
ductor told us not to hurry, that he would 
not start until we had all the dinner we 
wanted. We were about eight hours run- 
ning on or near the southern banks of the 



Down the Columbia River. 31 

Columbia River. The water was very high, 
and often ran swiftly over rough rocks in 
the bed of the stream, and around the bends 
with great force. The river appeared much 
wider than the Hudson, about the same 
width as the Danube at Vienna. The 
great rivers of Europe, Asia, Africa, and 
America all have their attractive peculiari- 
ties, and I often recall my remembrances 
of the St. Lawrence, Hudson, Mississippi, 
Rhine, Elbe, Danube, Seine, Nile, and 
Ganges with the greatest pleasure and satis- 
faction, and am thankful that I have been 
permitted to see them ; but I must ac- 
knowledge that the Columbia, in beauty and 
grandeur, far surpasses them all. For long 
distances, you look out upon the wide and 
rushing water, and up to the lofty moun- 
tains which border the banks and far be- 
yond, some covered with snow, and as pict- 
uresque and beautiful as anything an artist 
could dream of. 

One of the most interesting things to be 
seen on the trip down the river is the 
method of catching salmon, which, as is 
well known, are as fine as any in the world. 
They are caught in immense numbers and 
sent to all parts of the country. During 



32 Yellowstone Park and Alaska. 

the dry season, a wall is built about twenty- 
five feet from the shore, forming a canal 
through which the water rushes with great 
force. In this canal is placed a large wheel, 
something like those on a sidewheel steamer, 
under which the water pours, causing it to 
revolve in a direction contrary to the cur- 
rent. The salmon swimming up stream try 
to jump over this obstruction, and falling 
into the wheel, are tossed up on a platform, 
and thus captured. 

Our train arrived at this city at 9 P.M., 
and we were furnished with luxurious ac- 
commodations at "The Portland/' an hotel 
erected by a stock company, at a cost of 
one million dollars, and admirably kept by 
Mr. Leland, formerly of the Delavan, Al- 
bany, and the Clarendon, Saratoga. We 
found at the hotel all of the Alaska party 
in good health and spirits, and ready for 
the voyage as arranged. 

Two days of exceptionally fine weather 
have given us an opportunity to see this 
beautiful city to the best advantage. The 
Honorable Benjamin Stark, formerly United 
States Senator from Oregon, now residing 
in New London, Connecticut, informed me 
that when he first landed at Portland in 



Down the Columbia River. $$ 

1845, from the bark Toulon, there was not 
a house in the place, and the party was 
obliged to sleep in tents where now is a 
fine city of sixty-six thousand inhabitants, 
wide streets, elegant public and private 
buildings, electric and cable street railways, 
and all the appliances of modern civiliza- 
tion, in many respect in advance of Eastern 
cities. We saw a number of Japanese and 
Chinese stores filled with elegant goods, 
and attended by native salesmen. 

3 





CHAPTER VIII. 

TACOMA AND SEATTLE. 

Tacoma, Washington, July 5, 1892. 

F # E left Portland at 8 A.M. 
on the 2d by rail, and 
arrived at this fine ho- 
tel, " The Tacoma," at 
3.30 P.M. after a very 
agreeable and comfort- 
able trip. The first thing to attract our 
special attention was a' view of Mount 
Tacoma, as seen from the rear windows of 
the hotel, truly a royal and splendid sight : 
a great mountain, of symmetrical shape, cov- 
ered with pure white snow. There are not 
many such mountains to be seen anywhere ; 
none so beautiful, as I remember, except 
the Jungfrau at Interlaken, and Fusiyama 
in Japan. 

We have been in this place for three days, 
going about everywhere, and find it a won- 
derful example of a rapidly built city — solid 
and substantial, wide streets, great and costly 



Tacoma and Seattle. 35 

public and private buildings, an admirable 
system of swift-going street cars, running 
in every direction, by cable or electric 
power ; fine dry-goods and other stores, and 
every indication of great business activity 
and success. 

The citizens inform us that in 1880 there 
were thirty thousand inhabitants in this 
city, and now there are fifty thousand. Judg- 
ing from the crowds on the streets and in 
the street cars, and the business activity 
seen everywhere, this must be correct. We 
attended service on Sunday at St. Paul's 
Protestant Episcopal Church, built by Mr. 
Wright, of Philadelphia, in memory of his 
daughter. The church is a beautiful one ; 
the service was rendered in an impressive 
manner, and the sermon was excellent. 

Wishing to see Seattle, the other famous 
city of the State of Washington, I went 
there by rail in two hours, and, accompanied 
by a relative, spent the day looking at the 
buildings and shops, and travelling on the 
electric street cars, which run everywhere, 
with what appeared to be dangerous speed. 
We had an excellent lunch at a good hotel, 
situated on top of a hill, from which we 
looked down on the city and harbor. Look- 



36 Yellowstone Park and Alaska. 

ing at the solid blocks of business houses, 
wholesale and retail, and the beautiful pri- 
vate residences, and knowing that there are 
now about fifty thousand inhabitants in the 
city, it is difficult to comprehend that fifteen 
or twenty years ago it was almost a wilder- 
ness. After lunch, we took seats in an elec- 
tric car, and were carried five or six miles 
with the greatest ease, to a beautiful lake, 
where we found many interesting things to 
look at for an hour or two. We hear of a 
great deal of jealousy between Tacoma and 
Seattle, but to a stranger they appear to 
have much in common — large, substantial 
and handsome buildings, many of which 
would not be thought out of place in any 
city ; prompt, energetic, and lively business 
men, and every appearance that the founda- 
tions have been laid for two great cities, 
to which the immense products of India, 
China, and Japan will naturally come for 
distribution throughout the United States 
and Europe. 



CHAPTER IX. 




ON BOARD THE "QUEEN" FROM 
TACOMA TO VICTORIA. 

Steamer " Queen/' July 7, 1892. 

! T 9 P.M. on the 5th in- 
stant we went on board 
the steamer Queen, which, 
as there are no hotels 
in Alaska, is to be our 
home for two weeks. The 
steamer is a fine, large vessel, with ample 
accommodations for two hundred or more 
passengers. I had secured and paid for 
two first-class staterooms two months in 
advance, but found, the first night, that the 
ones given us were the worst on the ship, 
being directly over the boiler, and conse- 
quently so hot that it was impossible to 
live in them unless the doors were open. 
In addition to this annoyance, when the 
watch was changed at 9 P.M., and at 1, 
4, and 8 A.M., the ashes were hoisted from 
the hold, the rough and noisy machinery 



38 Yellowstone Park and Alaska. 

used being located in the rear of our rooms, 
apparently within a foot or two. The 
iron ash-can was about eighteen inches in 
diameter and four feet high, and when it 
was rushed up by steam power, it made a 
tremendous noise, making sleep impossible. 
In the morning I called on the purser, and 
asked him to change the rooms. He said 
that he could not " change all the rooms in 
the ship," but on being informed that un- 
less he gave my sister better accommoda- 
tions we would abandon the trip and go 
ashore at the next stopping place, he 
changed his mind, and gave her a good 
room in the cabin below, but refused to 
change mine unless I would pay fifty dollars 
additional. On consultation with my room- 
mate, Mr. Edwin S. Townsend, we con- 
cluded that the advance asked was a viola- 
tion of our contract with the company, and 
that we would not pay it. We therefore 
endured the distress and annoyance of the 
ash-lifting machinery. I did not remove 
my clothing at night, but lay on the bed 
until the ash-can nuisance commenced, and 
then left the room and walked the deck 
until the noise stopped, in about half an 
hour. Being forced on deck at night had 



On Board the " Queen? 39 

its inconveniences, but it had its compensa- 
tions also, for it gave me the chance to see 
the magnificent scenery by moonlight ; and, 
one night, there was a splendid display of 
aurora borealis, which illuminated the entire 
northern sky. 

After five nights spent in this disagree- 
able manner, one of our friends had a talk 
with the purser, and induced him to change 
the undesirable rooms for comfortable ones 
on the upper deck. We learned with much 
satisfaction that the steamer during the 
entire trip will go through a series of inland 
seas, and that we shall look upon the Paci- 
fic Ocean but two or three times, and then 
for only a few hours. 

We arrived off Seattle at 4 A.M. on the 
6th, and remained there five hours, giving 
those who wished an opportunity to go 
ashore and see that famous place. All day 
the beautiful vessel steamed along the quiet 
waters, until we reached Victoria, the capi- 
tal of British Columbia, at 9 P.M. Most 
of our party thought they would like to see 
the place, so half a dozen of us went ashore, 
and after consulting some natives, we con- 
cluded to walk to the settled part of the 
city. It was quite a long walk, a mile or 



40 Yellowstone Park and Alaska. 

more, passing government buildings and 
grounds, and many handsome houses, until 
we came to one of the business streets, and 
there we found the " Poodle Dog Restau- 
rant/' rendered famous from a notice of it 
in Mrs. General Collis's exceedingly interest- 
ing and beautifully illustrated book, " A 
Woman's Trip to Alaska." We had a little 
supper, and then took carriages back to the 
vessel, which soon afterward steamed away 
through the Gulf of Georgia, and along the 
coast of British Columbia toward Alaska, 
our goal. 




CHAPTER X. 



ALASKA. 




July 9, 1892. 



HIS morning we went 
ashore at Fort Wrangell, 
but found little there of 
interest. A lot of miser- 
able Indians and dogs 
and old houses, a post- 
office and a court-house. An Indian dressed 
himself as a warrior in paint and feathers, 
and executed a war-dance in a barn for 
the amusement of the visitors. I saw him 
dancing along the walk into the barn, but 
did not care to see the show. At noon we 
left the fort, and since then have been pass- 
ing through scenes of unsurpassed magni- 
ficence. Tall mountains were on either 
side, those nearest covered with spruce- 
trees, and the ranges back of them white 
with snow. Occasionally there were open 
spaces, where snow or land-slides had taken 
place, making good feeding grounds for wild 
animals, but we saw only one, a large elk, 



42 Yellowstone Park and Alaska. 

who kept on feeding and did not notice our 
ship. The sun set at a quarter past nine last 
evening. The steamer's route is generally 
between islands and the main land, the 
water smooth and everything comfortable ; 
but yesterday we came out upon the broad 
Pacific Ocean for an hour or two, and some 
of the passengers were sea-sick, but none 
of our party were troubled in that way. 
All appeared regularly at meals, which were 
excellent : well-cooked meats and vegeta- 
bles, and plenty of fruit. Just now, at 8 
P.M., we are in a bay some twenty miles 
in extent, surrounded by great mountains 
covered with snow. The setting sun shin- 
ing on these makes a picture of extreme 
beauty and grandeur. All day long we 
have been on deck admiring the beautiful 
sights, the weather being fine, numerous 
sea-gulls in view, occasionally a school of 
porpoises, and now and then a whale. Every 
day we pass numerous islands, large and 
small, all covered with spruce-trees and 
having a very charming appearance. 



CHAPTER XI. 



THE MUIR GLACIER. 




Glacier Bay, July 10, 1892. 

E arrived here at nine this 
morning, and have the 
great Muir Glacier before 
us. It is about two miles 
wide, two or three hun- 
dred feet high, and sev- 
eral hundred miles long. Every quarter 
of an hour or so we hear a loud crack, fol- 
lowed by a noise like the discharge of a gun, 
then a rumbling like thunder, and a big 
piece of ice, as large as a house, and, some- 
times, as a church, falls into the water, caus- 
ing the great steamer to rock. Word was 
passed for us to get into boats for an excur- 
sion onto the glacier. We were cautioned 
to be prudent and not to wander too far, 
and were told the story of a young Metho- 
dist clergyman, who went out of sight of 
his companions and was never after seen or 
heard of. It fell to my lot to escort a lady 
who, accompanied by her maid, wished to 



44 Yellowstone Park and Alaska. 

go on the glacier. A glacier may be said 
to be a river of ice, formed on the moun- 
tains and forced downwards, travelling the 
same as water, only slower. This one 
moves at the rate of about forty feet a day, 
much faster than they do in the Alps. 
Those at Chamouny, for instance, make 
only a foot or two a day. Our party landed, 
and for some distance had the use of a 
plank walk. From various parts of this 
we had fine views of the front of the gla- 
cier, large pieces of which were frequently 
falling into the water, making a great noise. 
We then, after much rough walking over 
stones and ice, passed up to the main body 
of the glacier. The ice is forced up into 
hillocks and ranges, wet, slippery, and diffi- 
cult to travel on. Mrs. B. tripped along 
lightly and safely, but not so her maid, 
whose shoes were treacherous, and twice 
she came to grief, but no harm was done. 
I had on arctic overshoes with corrugated 
soles, which served me well, for I did not 
slip once. For an hour or two we wan- 
dered about, admiring the ice, the views, 
the numerous small streams of clear water 
formed by melted ice, and then returned 
to our quarters on board. At 7 P.M. the 



The Muir Glacier. 45 

stately vessel steamed around near the 
front of the glacier, when, as if to give us 
a parting salute, an immense mass of ice, 
as big as a church, fell into the water with 
a great noise. The passengers cheered, and 
we went on our course, passing numerous 
ice islands. The day was perfect, as the 
preceding ones had been. 




CHAPTER XII. 



SITKA. 




Sitka, July n, 1892. 

j J T six o'clock this morning 
we arrived here. The 
weather was warm, tem- 
pered by a cool breeze. 
Not a cloud was in the 
sky. This is a small har- 
bor, with many islands in sight. From the 
deck of the steamer we could see the town, 
and on top of a hill a large wooden edifice, 
where the Russian governor-general for- 
merly resided. It is vacant now, and in 
a dilapidated condition. We went ashore, 
and saw many Indians sitting on the walks 
or by the side of the roads. They were 
dressed nicely, and were better looking than 
any I ever saw before. They had the usual 
supply of baskets and curios for sale. 

We went in and out of several stores, and 
bought some curios, and then visited the 
Russian church, where there were some 



Sitka. 47 

fine paintings of saints and other religious 
subjects. Back about a rod from the water, 
with boats in front of them, were a hun- 
dred or more houses occupied by Indians. 
Accompanied by a resident doctor, we went 
into some of these houses, and saw how the 
Indians lived. Owing to the large number 
of dogs and quantities of bad-smelling fish, 
we were very glad to get away from that 
neighborhood. 

One of our friends had chartered the only 
wagon in the town, and took us for a trip 
of a mile or two along the shore, among 
the sweet-smelling spruce-trees, to a small 
stream of water, over which we passed, and 
then rested in the woods. On our return, 
we went to the Presbyterian Mission, which 
is a large and important one. It consists 
of a group of buildings : a church, a school- 
house, and two large edifices erected at 
the expense of Mrs. Elliott F. Shepard, in 
which the young Indians are to be taught 
carpentry and other mechanical industries. 
We attended a school in session, and heard 
the reverend gentleman in charge examine 
the Indian girls and boys in arithmetic, 
reading, and writing. They appeared as 
bright and intelligent as any white children, 



48 Yellowstone Park and Alaska. 

and as capable of being educated. It was 
reported to us that there were two hundred 
pupils in the school, and fourteen mission- 
aries in charge. 

Mrs. Richard H. L. Townsend, of New 
York, saw among the pupils a sweet-faced 
and bright girl ten years of age, and after 
talking to her awhile, adopted her to edu- 
cate, agreeing to pay the mission for her 
support and education for a number of 
years. This lady, when in Japan in 1889, 
adopted in a similar way a little native 
girl there, and another native girl in China. 
These two children in their respective coun- 
tries are getting along nicely with their 
education, and write to Mrs. T. sweet let- 
ters every month. 




CHAPTER XIII. 



AN ACCIDENT TO THE " QUEEN." 




July 12, 1892. 

[| T 7 P.M. last evening the 
steamer's whistle sounded 
the last signal, all our pas- 
sengers came on board, 
and we started. Going 
out of the harbor, we 
passed numerous small islands covered 
with spruce-trees. The view of the town, 
the harbor, and the surrounding mountains 
made a scene of great beauty. At half-past 
seven the steamer struck a rock. The bow 
was forced high up out of water, and the 
stern, where I was sitting with some ladies 
and gentlemen, careened over so much 
that we had to hold on to the railing to 
prevent ourselves from falling. There was 
no occasion for alarm, as we were within 
two hundred feet of an island, and about 
a mile from the harbor of Sitka, where we 
could see a revenue cutter lying, with her 



50 Yellowstone Park and Alaska. 

steam up, and numerous rowboats near. 
No one about us manifested any excite- 
ment, except one young woman who be- 
came hysterical and had to be restrained. 
The tide was rising, and our captain de- 
clined assistance from the captain of the 
revenue cutter, thinking it best to wait for 
the tide to rise high enough to float the 
vessel. The passengers were generally very 
cool, except one gentleman from Chicago, 
said to be worth several million dollars, 
who indulged in remarks about the proper 
way to navigate steamers, and insisted that 
the captain of the Queen did not understand 
his business, or he would not have run the 
vessel on rocks in the daytime. Captain 
Carroll, hearing of these observations, 
stepped up to the great capitalist and said : 
" Sir, if you do not like the way I manage 
this ship, you can go ashore," to which the 
capitalist replied that he would. A boat 
was lowered, and the officer in charge was 
directed to take this gentleman, together 
with his wife and daughter, back to Sitka. 
There being no hotels in the town, and 
hardly any accommodations whatever, ex- 
cept for Indians and dogs, the prospect of 
being obliged to stop there for a week or 



An Accident to the "Queen." 51 

two was not entertaining, so the wife and 
daughter remonstrated. The matter was 
therefore smoothed over with the captain, 
and all parties remained on board. Soon 
after this incident, a line was run to the 
shore of an island near by, and attached to 
the trunk of a tree, to assist in hauling the 
ship off. Every half hour or so the pro- 
peller would commence running, and at- 
tempts would be made to start the steamer, 
with no success, until 12.15 A.M., when, 
with much grating on the bottom, she was 
floated off into deep water. The captain 
thought best to take her back to Sitka, so 
w r e were soon anchored there again, oppo- 
site Mrs. Shepard's houses. 

When I awoke this morning, the water 
was as still as a mill pond, and the sky 
cloudless, giving us another perfect day. 
It was found that no damage had been 
done to the steamer, and at 8 A.M. she 
started on her course. We are now passing 
through Peril Straits, very narrow, with 
mountains near, covered with trees. The 
water is shallow, and sometimes our stanch 
vessel grates roughly over the bottom. At 
one time, when passing an opening of a 
dozen miles, we looked upon the ocean, 



52 Yellowstone Park and Alaska. 

with just enough swell to remind us how 
much more agreeable it is to sail on water 
where you are not liable to sea-sickness. 

The captain has issued his usual noon- 
day bulletin, stating that the ship will ar- 
rive at certain places during the next 
twenty-four hours, provided she does not 
run on rocks, and there is no fog, and that 
" after Juneau, we will go to Taku Glacier, 
where we will obtain our supply of ice." 
" Passengers are permitted to fill up with 
it, as it is exceedingly cheap, and cooling to 
the mind." 




CHAPTER XTV. 




ICY BAY, TREADWELL, AND 
JUNEAU. 

Juneau, July 13, 1892. 

ESTERDAY we were 
moving through the 
straits, and looking upon 
the majestic scenery 
which distinguishes 
Alaska, for a thousand 
miles from Tacoma. We passed the great 
Davidson Glacier, and during the afternoon 
and evening were constantly seeing immense 
ranges of mountains, until we reached Icy 
Bay at seven this morning. Here the steamer 
took in her supply of ice, fishing it out of 
the water and hoisting it on board, several 
tons at a time. Coming into Icy Bay, the 
scenery was of extraordinary grandeur, 
mountains many thousand feet high, the 
bases of which were near the water, and 
numerous waterfalls and glaciers. Some 
of us sat up nearly all night to see the 



54 Yellowstone Park and Alaska. 

wonders, the like of which cannot be seen 
anywhere in the world, except, perhaps, in 
Greenland. After midnight the moon came 
up in all her glory, and the northern lights 
played fantastic tricks in the sky. The 
great glacier in this bay is a wonder, a 
mile wide and several hundred feet high, 
the ice falling off every few minutes in 
great masses. Once I saw two great ice 
towers, looking much like those of the 
Church of Notre Dame in Paris, and I 
called the attention of a lady to them. 
Hardly had I made the remark, before they 
both crumbled down into the water with a 
tremendous crash, making our big ship feel 
the force of the waves caused by the fall. 
After leaving Icy Bay we touched at Tread- 
well at noon, where are located some famous 
gold mines. Most of the passengers went 
ashore and were permitted to go through 
the large buildings of the mining company, 
and see the operations of getting gold from 
rocks. The blasting was going on a short 
distance off. The ore was transported by 
rail to the mill, and then pounded into 
powder by several hundred powerful steam 
hammers, which made a prodigious din. 
This powdered stone was mixed with run- 



Icy Bay and Juneau. 5 5 

ning water, and we were informed that the 
gold was obtained in that way, but we saw 
none of it. An hour was quite sufficient 
for Treadwell, so we steamed over to this 
place, nearly opposite, and went ashore. 
There are several hundred houses in this 
town, built at the base of the mountains. 
Near the water there was the usual number 
of Indian women squatting on the ground 
and offering baskets and curios for sale. 
The stores are well supplied with skins of 
foxes, bears, and other wild animals, and 
the usual goods required in country places. 




CHAPTER XV. 

THE RETURN VOYAGE, AND SOME 
STORIES TOLD ON THE WAY. 




N the evening of the 13th we 
left Juneau, and reached 
Chilcat, the most northerly 
place on our course, the 
following morning. Then 
commenced the return trip 
over much the same route which we took 
on the outgoing voyage, passing the moun- 
tains, glaciers, and islands we had seen 
before. The passengers amused them- 
selves in various ways, one group in 
the cabin telling stories to pass away the 
time. 

One of this party interviewed an elderly 
gentleman, and asked him if there was not 
a history connected with the great scar 
which extended across his face, and the 
gentleman very kindly told the following, 
which may be called — 



The Return Voyage. 57 

THE CAPTAIN'S STORY. 
" My name is Neilson, and I have been at 
sea since I was a boy. For many years I 
served before the mast, then as mate, and 
finally as captain, on many voyages in differ- 
ent parts of the world. Back in the fifties 
I was in command of a whaling ship owned 
in San Francisco, and we sailed from that 
port to the selected cruising ground in 
Behring Sea, between the Aleutian Islands 
and Behring Strait. Once we sailed through 
the strait into the Arctic Ocean, but the 
intense cold and immense masses of float- 
ing ice drove us back in a damaged condi- 
tion. We secured a good many whales 
after some months' cruising about, until, 
one day, a violent storm came up, and we 
were driven ashore on St. Lawrence Island, 
near North Cape. The ship was a total 
loss, but all the officers and crew succeeded 
in getting ashore, and a passing ship took 
us back to San Francisco. I stopped in the 
city for some weeks, and talked a good deal 
with an old friend, Captain Samuel, who 
had also been so unfortunate as to lose his 
ship on a whaling voyage. We looked 
about and found some capitalists who pur- 
chased a ship for us, and we determined to 



58 Yellowstone Park and Alaska. 

try our luck again, searching for whales in 
the Behring Sea. Captain Samuel sug- 
gested that I should be captain and he 
would act as mate, but I told him no, that 
he, being the elder and more experienced, 
should be captain, and I the mate, and it 
was so arranged. The captain of a whal- 
ing craft always has a share of the results 
of the voyage, and the mate another, but 
not so large as the captain's. It was agreed 
between us that on this voyage we would 
divide the profits, if any, equally. It will 
be understood that at this time whaling 
voyages were very profitable, sperm oil 
often selling in the San Francisco market 
for two dollars and fifty cents per gallon. 

" We shipped a crew of ten men, and a 
second mate, took on provisions for a long 
voyage, and sailed for Behring Sea. We 
cruised about over three months, and had 
remarkable success, having harpooned and 
secured several large sperm whales, so we felt 
that we were going to have a good voyage. 

" The crew was a rough one, and some- 
times we heard murmurs of discontent 
about the labor of trying out the oil, and 
about the food, but we paid no attention, 
thinking it only the usual growling among 



The Return Voyage. 59 

sailors. One day the captain and I were in 
the cabin, when he, hearing a noise, stepped 
on deck, and was at once assaulted by a 
man with a cutlass, and instantly killed. 
Hearing the uproar, I too rushed on deck 
only to be in season to see the prostrate 
form of the murdered captain, and a sailor 
with a drawn cutlass coming toward me. 
As I backed down the companion-way he 
hit me on the head, where the scar is, which 
has attracted your attention. I fell into 
the hold, and the mutineers, thinking I 
was dead, did not follow me. I found, in 
the hold, the second mate, unhurt, who 
staunched the flowing blood from my 
wound, and bound it up with some old 
canvas. At that time I was nearly forty 
years younger than I am now, and was as 
tough as men are made. The mutineers 
heard us moving about, and fired at us with 
muskets loaded with ball, but did not hit 
us. For some reason, they did not venture 
down after us, probably because they knew 
there were loaded muskets within our reach, 
and that we would be sure to use them. 
We found the muskets, but they were use- 
less, having been wet. 

" As every moment's delay was danger- 



60 Yellowstone Park and Alaska. 

ous, we being liable to be hunted down, 
killed, and thrown into the sea, to follow 
the body of our murdered captain, it became 
necessary for us to think and act quickly. 

" We could hear the men, who were 
collected together directly over the cabin, 
talking loudly and excitedly. I knew where 
the magazine was, and getting a keg of 
powder, placed it directly under where the 
mutineers were standing, laid a train from 
it to the bow of the vessel, and touched a 
match to it. The explosion was almost 
instantaneous, and tremendous in its results, 
throwing to the right and left that part of 
the cabin over which the mutineers were, 
and killing or drowning every man except 
three, who, evidently thinking the ship was 
a wreck, hastily got into a boat and rowed 
away. 

" We listened for some time, but hearing 
no noise, went on deck, and found on exam- 
ination that the hull of the ship was per- 
fectly sound, and that no damage had been 
done to the masts ; so that with some as- 
sistance we could navigate her into port. 
We obtained the assistance required from 
a passing vessel, and in due season arrived 
at San Francisco. There was a good deal 



The Return Voyage. 61 

of valuable sperm oil on board, which was 
sold, and gave the second mate and myself 
quite a sum of money, the owners being dis- 
posed to be liberal under the extraordinary 
circumstances. 

" After this, I concluded to abandon the 
sea, and went into the business of supply- 
ing water to ships in the port of San Fran- 
cisco. 

" I had followed this business for twelve 
years, when one day, as I was furnishing 
water for a whaling ship, I saw among the 
sailors a man who, I felt quite certain, was 
the ring-leader of the gang of murderous 
mutineers who killed our captain and came 
so near making an end of me. I communi- 
cated my suspicions to the captain of the 
whaler, but he said that his ship was ready 
to sail, and that he would take the man, 
but would keep a watch on him, and find 
out if he talked while at sea. When this 
ship returned, the captain sought me out, 
and said : ' He is your man, for he talked 
during the voyage, and told about being on 
a ship on which an explosion took place, 
and he and two others were the only sur- 
vivors.' I had the man arrested, but the 
administration of justice was very lax at 



62 Yellowstone Park and Alaska. 

that time in California, and the time which 
had elapsed since the commission of the 
crime rendered proof difficult to obtain, so 
the man escaped the gallows. 

" This, gentlemen, is the story of how I 
became scarred for life, as you see." 

Another tale related by one of the story- 
telling group ran as follows : 

THE TRAVELLER'S STORY. — AN UMBRELLA. 

" I am an expert in umbrellas, take good 
care of them, and they generally serve me 
for many years. I have one purchased in 
Florence, another from the Bon Marche, 
Paris, and this one, which I hold in my 
hand, bought at the Burlington Arcade, 
London, has been a good and faithful ser- 
vant, having been used as a cane when 
tramping through Italy, France, Germany, 
and England. It has sheltered me from 
the rains of Japan, and the terrible sun in 
China, Ceylon, India, Egypt, and Turkey. 
It has been re-covered in Vienna, and had a 
new stick put in at New York, and, as you 
see, is now in fair condition. One day, in 
Constantinople, I wandered along the street 
called La Grande Rue de Pera, which is 



The Rehcrn Voyage. 63 

about a mile long, and on which are located 
the principal foreign shops ; but I failed to 
discover anything grand about it, and one 
is annoyed to have to avoid stepping on 
great yellow dogs, who are sleeping on the 
sidewalks, when there are any, and in the 
roadway. At one end of this street are 
cable cars, which carry you down a sharp 
incline to the streets on the water. I took 
one of these cars down, and in a few min- 
utes passed over the famous bridge which 
connects Galata with Constantinople proper, 
to a wharf, where I was detained some time 
waiting for a steamboat to take me on the 
splendid and never-to-be-forgotten trip up 
the Bosphorus, to the entrance of the Black 
Sea. Many large yellow dogs were wan- 
dering about on the wharf, and one of them 
coming near me, I scratched his back with 
this umbrella, which he took for a hostile 
demonstration, and bit the umbrella in a 
most savage way, with his long, sharp teeth. 
I succeeded in getting it away from him, 
and was glad that he did not try his teeth 
on me. From that day I have been care- 
ful about undertaking to pet strange dogs 
with umbrellas, or anything else, but I for- 
got the Constantinople experience yester- 



64 Yellowstone Park and Alaska. 

day at Sitka, when I went ashore, and after 
wandering around among the Indian women, 
who were sitting on the grass surrounded 
by their mats, bottles, and various curios, 
I stopped opposite one of them, and saw, 
lying down in front of her, a very small dog, 
which I supposed was a puppy, but it proved 
to be full grown, and a very ugly little beast. 
I touched him with the umbrella, and he 
barked in a furious manner, and making one 
jump, fastened his teeth into my leg above 
the knee. I shook him off, the Indian 
woman put him under her blanket, and I 
returned to the ship to repair damages with 
court-plaster, vowing that never shall this 
umbrella be used again to pet a strange 
dog." 

Indian reminiscences being in order, one 
of our party related the following : 

SARAH ARBUCKLE AND THE INDIAN CHIEF. 

A STORY OF FRONTIER LIFE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

" Sarah Arbuckle came to this country, 
with her father and brothers, about 1740, 
when she was sixteen years old. They 
settled in the midst of a dense wilderness, 
where the town of Merrimac now stands, 



The Return Voyage. 65 

many miles from neighbors, and she was 
their housekeeper. It was so lonely that 
many times a day, she would step out-of- 
doors to listen for the sound of their axes, 
and if it ceased for any length of time, she 
would tremble with fear lest the Indians or 
wild beasts had attacked them. 

" One morning she was stooping over the 
fireplace, making the i stirabout ' (Indian 
hasty pudding) for breakfast, when a shadow 
falling across the floor startled her, and 
turning hastily to the open door, she was 
frightened almost to death at the sight of 
a gigantic Indian standing at the thresh- 
old, with blood streaming down all over 
one side of his face. He tried to speak 
to her, but she could not understand him. 
When she was a little over her fright, she 
saw that there was an arrow sticking in his 
eye, which he wanted her to remove. She 
plucked up courage, drew the arrow out, 
dressed the wound, gave him food, and he 
stayed there and was cared for a few days, 
and then disappeared in the woods. Some 
years after this occurrence, a war broke out 
between the Indians and settlers, and the 
Arbuckles were preparing to remove to the 
garrison house for safety, when, one even- 
5 



66 Yellowstone Park and Alaska. 

ing, a band of Indians, with fearful yells, 
burst in the doors of their house, and the 
tomahawk was just descending on Sarah's 
head, when at a word spoken by a chief, 
who rushed in after them, every warrior 
dropped his hand, and silently, one after 
another, filed out into the darkness, leav- 
ing the chief with the family. He had 
learned enough English to tell them that 
he had been there before, and had been 
assisted by them, and that they need fear 
nothing. They might remain on their 
place, and would not be molested. They 
did so throughout the war, and had no fur- 
ther trouble. This Indian came to see them 
annually, for years after, always bringing 
them some little present." 



These and other stories helped us to 
while away the time until we arrived at 
Nanaimo, at six o'clock on the morning of 
July 16th. Here our party left the steamer 
and embarked on a ferry-boat. 

In two hours we landed at Vancouver, 
British Columbia, and found there a first- 
class hotel. Ten years ago, we were in- 
formed, the place on which the city is 



L. of C. 



The Return Voyage. 6/ 

built was a wilderness, but when the Cana- 
dian Pacific Railroad made it the western 
terminus of its line, there was at once a 
"boom," such as has been seen so often in 
our own Western States, and now there 
are banks, public buildings, fine streets, 
electric cars, and all the appliances to make 
strangers and residents happy. 





CHAPTER XVI. 

ON THE CANADIAN PACIFIC. 

Glacier House, 
Canadian Pacific Railway, July 19, 1892. 

I 

E left Vancouver at 2.20 

P.M. on the 1 6th, and 
made our acquaintance 
with this great transcon- 
tinental railway. I think 
it fully as good as any 
of those over which I have travelled in re- 
cent years. A good roadbed, fine and com- 
fortable cars, polite attendants, and every 
thing supplied to make travelling agreeable. 
The road runs for many miles on the banks 
of the Frazier River. Great mountains 
tower above, covered with snow, and there 
are distant views of glaciers, which would 
have been thought immense if we had not 
seen those in Alaska. We were detained 
all day Sunday at a place called Kamloops, 
a telegram having been received that a 
freight train had been derailed eighty miles 
eastward. Some of us attended service at 



On the Canadian Pacific. 69 

a small Methodist Church, and listened to 
a good sermon from a young man who had 
for a congregation only about twenty per- 
sons. Leaving Kamloops on the evening 
of the 17th, we arrived here at seven the 
next morning. This hotel, which was built 
and is kept by the railway company, is a 
fine one, and guests are made very comfort- 
able by the excellent manager, Mr. Pearly. 
The valley through which the road passes 
does not contain more than two or three 
hundred acres, and is surrounded by im- 
mense mountains, one of which, Sir Donald, 
is a mile and a half high. Small streams 
of melted ice and snow come rushing down 
from the tops of these mountains, and form 
a pretty little river, in some places not more 
than twenty-five feet wide. Our party took 
a two-mile walk over a rough path to a great 
glacier among the mountains, Mr. Pearly 
acting as guide. It was a hard tramp 
through the woods, and over small streams, 
but we all survived it, and in a couple of 
hours returned to the hotel, very much 
fatigued, but well pleased. Near the hotel, 
the railway tracks are covered with sub- 
stantial snow-sheds about a mile long, 
made of heavy planks and timber, afford- 



jo Yellowstone Park and Alaska. 

ing an excellent place for walking and view- 
ing the surrounding mountains. A party 
of ladies and gentlemen went out on these 
sheds this morning, and spent some time 
walking back and forth, viewing the mag- 
nificent scenery. The. surrounding moun- 
tains appeared colossal in their grandeur. 
We had a fine view of them, and of the 
great glacier, and the valley below. The 
scenery all along this railway from Vancou- 
ver impresses me as the most splendid I 
have ever seen anywhere, with the excep- 
tion of once, when we came up from the 
hot plains of India, crossed the Ganges, 
and taking a little narrow-gauge railway, 
crawled up the mighty Himalayas to Dar- 
jeeling, arriving at sunset. It was a glori- 
ous sight, four mighty ranges of mountains, 
among them Mount Everest, twenty-nine 
thousand feet high. But this is a digression. 
From our place of observation on the snow- 
sheds we were looking down into the valley, 
when suddenly Mr. Edwin T. Townsend 
shouted : " There is a bear," and all eyes 
were turned in the direction of the little 
stream running through the valley below, 
about one-third of a mile off. On a small 
island in this stream, wandering about, was 



On the Canadian Pacific. 71 

a big grizzly, as large as a cow. He was in 
sight for half an hour, and seemed to be a 
playful kind of a beast. He would wade 
out into the stream, and get something to 
eat, probably refuse from the hotel, then go 
ashore and devour it ; and once he got hold 
of a good-sized spruce-tree and shook it 
violently. Mr. Eden, of Winnipeg, went to 
the hotel for a gun, and, accompanied by 
another gentleman, tried to head off the 
bear and get a shot at him, but he disap- 
peared and could not be found. 





CHAPTER XVII. 

BANFF SPRINGS. 

Banff Springs Hotel, 
Canadian National Park, July 22, 1892. 

f E left the Glacier Hotel 
on the 19th, at 1 P.M., 
or, as stated in the time 
tables of this country, at 
thirteen o'clock, and ar- 
rived here at 11 P.M. 
We spent the whole time on the observa- 
tion car, viewing the mighty mountains and 
magnificent scenery along the banks of the 
Columbia and the Beaver. 

Banff is an ideal place for an hotel, being 
situated near the Bow River Falls and the 
mouth of the Spray, and surrounded by 
great mountains, often ten thousand feet 
high. There are fine roads and walks every- 
where. The hotel is a splendid one, built 
and run by the railway company, and every- 
thing about it is first-class. Sulphur springs 
are located two miles up among the moun- 



Banff Springs. 73 

tains, the water being brought down in 
pipes to the rear of the hotel, where there 
are bathing houses, and an open-air bathing 
tank, thirty by twenty feet and five feet 
deep. The water in this tank is strongly 
impregnated with sulphur. Young Mr. 
Townsend and I took a bath in this tank, 
and found the water so delightful, soft, and 
nice to swim about in, that we stopped in 
too long, or were not sufficiently cautious 
coming out, and I caught a bad cold, fol- 
lowed by a cough and headache, and conse- 
quently had to spend a couple of days in 
bed, seeking, with the aid of Doctors Diet 
and Quiet, to recuperate. 





CHAPTER XVIII. 

CONCLUSION. 

1?)E left Banff at 10.20 P.M. 
on the 22d, and after two 
days and two nights on 
the cars, reached Winni- 
peg, the capital of Man- 
i t o b a . At the hotel 
there we found the rooms for which we 
had telegraphed ready for us. The sulphur 
bath at Banff, and the subsequent exposure, 
proved too much for me, and I was obliged 
to go to bed and stay there for a week. 
Very often I suffered extreme pain in the 
head, and was only conscious of being care- 
fully nursed by my sister and travelling 
companions, and attended by a skilful doc- 
tor. After three days and nights of con- 
tinuous illness I grew better, and began 
to appreciate how exceedingly kind every 
one was. One lady, Mrs. E., of Winnipeg, 
sent for my use calfs-foot jelly and beef 
tea prepared by her own fair hands, and 



Conclusion. 75 

accompanied with beautiful flowers from 
her garden. Another one, Mrs. B., of New 
Orleans, sent a pot of beautiful flowering 
fuchsia. All of which attentions were very 
acceptable. 

Ever since we left Vancouver, all along 
the railroad, there was a small-pox scare. 
There had been a hundred cases at Victoria, 
and the city had been quarantined ; reports 
were also circulated that the disease was 
bad at Vancouver, and as a consequence 
the passengers on our train were looked 
upon with suspicion. At one stopping 
place, called Medicine Hat, ropes were put 
around the station, and the passengers 
were prevented from going into the town. 
The governor of North Dakota issued a 
proclamation forbidding all persons to come 
into that State from Manitoba, by rail or 
otherwise, because a Chinaman near the 
line, and a girl who nursed him, had the 
small-pox. In two or three days, however, 
this proclamation was withdrawn, much to 
my relief, as I wished to return home by 
the shortest route. The Manitoba Hotel, 
where we were located, is owned and man- 
aged by the Northern Pacific Railroad Co., 
and is a model one in every way. 



J 6 Yellowstone Park and Alaska. 

When sufficiently recovered from my at 
one time serious illness, I took several 
drives about the thriving and beautiful city, 
and finally, on August 2d, we started by the 
Great Northern Railroad for home. One 
day at Minneapolis was altogether too little 
time for seeing one of the finest cities of 
its size in the world. Two days were spent 
at Chicago, during which we drove around 
the Exposition buildings, now rapidly near- 
ing completion ; then we took places pre- 
viously engaged on the Pennsylvania Lim- 
ited, and in twenty-five hours w T ere landed 
in Jersey City. We happened to occupy a 
car which had just been put on the road, 
containing many new appliances and con- 
veniences, the latest inventions of Mr. Pull- 
man. 

Thus pleasantly our journey ended, and 
we arrived safely home again, after an ab- 
sence of just fifty-one days. 




